Avatar: Book 4
by Ryan Ebson
Summary: After the War ended, the world did not immediately enter an era of peace. There was unrest in the world, especially within the Fire Nation. It was on the brink of civil war, one that could destroy a powerful nation.
1. Chapter 1: New Beginnings

It was over. It was all over. That was all the Avatar could think of the next day after he had defeated the Fire Lord. A Great War of one hundred years, coming to an end during the same event that had started it.

Of course, this war was not truly over. The world was scarred after a hundred years of deadly combat – more scarred than it ever had been in all known history. And it was this young boy's duty to heal the scars. Aang didn't even know if they would be fully healed in his lifetime, however long that would last. Some ran deep past the skin and would take a while to disappear. Others were permanent, and would last forever.

Aang even had his own scars. He had his two literal ones, one on his back and the other on his foot. But they did not cause such agonizing pain as the scar created by the loss of his entire race at the beginning of the War. This was one of the scars that would always be there, causing pain whenever someone were to touch it.

And as for Katara…well, Aang couldn't even find words to express how happy he was. They had shared a kiss yesterday in Ba Sing Se, one Aang had been waiting for for a long time. He knew it was love at first sight for those two. She didn't, and it drove him crazy. But now they both knew, and he was immensely satisfied with that.

* * *

Meanwhile, now-Fire Lord Zuko was overwhelmed with the challenges he was to face. Yes, it was great that he found love as well with Mai. Yes, he was pleased when his father was defeated and the Great War ended. But Zuko wasn't quite the optimist, and currently he was focusing on what could become another war. A civil war, one that would divide the Fire Nation. Just because the War was over didn't meant that people stopped believing in its cause. People were still power hungry, and the power hungry people were dangerous. Zuko could trust no one. He knew that at any moment a guard could turn on him. They could kill him, and that would be the end of that.

Iroh tried to cheer him up. He tried everything – tea, advice, he even offered a game of Pai Sho – but Zuko could not, _would_ not be comforted by anything. Except the advice. Advice was the only thing that could do anything to comfort Zuko, but still it was not much. With every passing moment he was becoming more and more distant from everybody. Zuko knew that the fate of an entire nation was his responsibility – if he failed to keep peace, to keep order, it would be on his head. It was too much of a burden for the 17-year-old, and it was breaking him down.

Zuko consistently offered to transfer the title of Fire Lord to his uncle, and remain as the Crown Prince. But Iroh always refused, saying that the world needed a ruler like him. Zuko would dispute this, saying that his uncle was much more experience in the ways of the world, was much wiser, and would be a much better ruler than he could possibly dream of. But Iroh said that he could not take the throne. He insisted that Zuko could, and would get through this, even if it required help. Zuko had doubted this, but at the same time knew that doubting his uncle was never a wise decision. But now Zuko truly believed that his uncle was mistaken.

* * *

After the war, Aang, Sokka, and Katara revisited the Southern Water Tribe. Since their initial departure, it has been largely rebuilt and was in much better shape than they had even hoped. Of course, it wasn't even half as majestic as the Northern Water Tribe, but it was a start, and they weren't even close to the end yet.

Sokka and Katara even came close to staying in the once-desolate area. After seeing their grandmother and father, as well as their new grandfather, leaving was nearly impossible. But they felt that leaving Aang alone would be cruel, and they compromised. They would visit once every two months, no exceptions.

* * *

As for Toph, she did not go back to visit her parents. She maintained that she could remain independent, and that she didn't need them. Toph wanted to keep her image of independence up; she did not want people to think that she needed anyone else. And to anyone that suggested that she go and at least visit their parents, God help them. Toph's reaction was unpredictable; it could range from a simple "no" to a chunk of solid rock flying at your head depending on the mood she was in.

Despite the constant negative reaction, Katara, being her motherly self, persisted in asking. And every time she did her relationship with Toph became more and more strained. Toph was stubborn and Katara knew that, but Katara was stubborn too, and she was more determined to win this than she has ever been.

* * *

After the war, Zuko decided to take a field trip of his own. It wasn't going to be a fun one, and he knew that. But it was one he felt he had to take.

It was to a medical center on an island nearby the Fire Nation Capital. In this building his sister, Azula, was finally contained. She was watched around the clock, with no chance of escaping. His defeat of her was what finally caused her to break, and he knew it. In a way, he felt sorry for her. She was a victim of her own desire to be perfect, to be powerful, to be in control. And she was a victim of her own belief that her mother favoured her son Zuko over her. Now she was locked up in chains, never to be seen by the outside world again.

Appa landed just outside the facility. Zuko entered and was directed to his sister's room. On the way he tried his hardest not to look at the center's inhabitants, knowing that these people were probably staying for life. It pained Zuko to know these people were going nowhere, including his sister.

At the end of the hallway they reached Azula's room. Zuko could see that her title of Princess did nothing matter. She had no special privileges here, nothing was different for her because she was royalty. Her "room", as they referred to it, was more of a cell. She rested on a bed, which was the only item in this metal box. There was only one knob to the door on the outside, and she had no way out. The only opening was a small rectangular spot located exactly at the eye level of Zuko. Even if you were to reach through, the knob was located so low on the door that it would be impossible for the tallest of people to turn it.

"Azula." That was all Zuko could think to say. After what was happening to her, he had no words left.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped. She stood up and ran forwards as far as she could, but her hands were chained behind her back to bed. The bed was bolted down to the floor.

"I'm just coming for a visit," he replied. "I see you're not doing too well."

"_You're_ not going to be doing too well once I'm finished with you!" Azula shouted. "Why don't you come in here so I can finish you off!"

"You can't do that, and you know it. I beat you."

"No, you didn't! Can't you remember what happened so _recently_? You left the battle with lightning running through your veins, _my_ lightning, if it weren't for that Water Tribe peasant you would have been _dead_, and it would have been because of _me_! Me, Azula, rightful Heir to the throne!"

Zuko waited a moment, taking in what had just been shouted at him. Then he spoke. "I'm not the one that's locked up." Zuko then proceeded to turn around, and walked back down the hallway, leaving his sister in her miserable solitude.

Azula did not react well to this. She screamed, a burst of hot blue flame leaving her mouth along with the noise. "I'll get out of here! I'll leave if I have to drag this entire building with me! Then I'll find you, and kill you! One day you're not going to wake up, Zuko! And neither is your mother!"

Zuko stopped. He could feel the rage pulsing through him, and he wanted so much to turn around and shoot flame back at her. But he was not going to. He was going to control himself. He was going to understand the mental state that she was in, and he was going to walk away. But not after he said something.

"She's your mother, too." Then he continued his calm exit as he had before.

Azula laughed at this. She had no mother. She just had a woman that was forced to be with her at all times. She was not loved. It just wasn't possible to her.

"She'll be nobody's mother once I'm through with her."

This time Zuko didn't even stop. The anger, the rage, the infuriating desire to lash back had finally taken over his mind and body. He turned around and shot fireball after fireball at her door, hoping that one would make contact and that the world would never have to deal with this horrible, manipulative creature again. He ran towards the door, despite the warnings of the main caretaker who was rushing to try and stop him. But he was fast, faster than the woman, and he burst in to find that Azula was unharmed. He planned on changing that.

Again Zuko sent fire at her, but in one swift move she easily dodged it and used her chains to swing her entire body around and kick him. Her feet made contact with his body, and he fell forwards towards the metal wall. He had a massive headache at this point and shot another burst of flame in her general direction, unable to focus. But it missed by a wide margin despite the short distance between the two, and she tripped him so that his entire body was on the ground. Zuko sent another blast one final time, knowing that he had probably missed. He then felt the impact of a foot again at his skull, kicking his head to the metal wall over and over. His vision became blurry, and he saw the figures of what he assumed to be guards rush in before he lost consciousness.

* * *

Zuko heard voices. They were of his friends, talking worriedly to each other. He thought that maybe he was dying and this would be the last that he heard before he took his final breath. But he opened his eyes, and saw everyone watching down upon him, eyes widening and gasping and celebrating when they saw that he had regained consciousness. Zuko lifted his head, but he heard Katara from the side tell him to stay still. He could feel her healing him.

"Where am I?" he asked. Zuko could see the sky above him, and there was nothing that he could recognize.

Katara again spoke. "You're still at the mental facility, just outside. There was no time to bring you anywhere else. They knew you weren't in good shape. They gave you some medicine and sent a messenger hawk over to the Royal Palace, thinking that you weren't going to make it. Then we found a leftover war balloon near the palace and got your uncle to get it going."

Zuko immediately sprang up again with excitement. "My uncle's here?" He saw him standing behind Katara, tears streaming down his face. But he didn't get to see for long, because Katara immediately pushed his head back down. "I _said_ not to move. You can say hello after I'm done."

Eventually Katara finished, saying that he would make a full recovery. Iroh immediately pulled Zuko to his feet and hugged him. "You can't even imagine how worried I was," he said between gasps for air. "That crazy bitch is going down."

Zuko was wide-eyed with surprise. "Uncle. I've never heard you so…brash before."

"Anyone who tries to hurt my nephew has to go through me," he replied lovingly.


	2. Chapter 2: What Happened to Ursa

Aang was up unusually early today, along with his friends in their neighbouring houses. They were all preparing for a meeting that Fire Lord Zuko had requested the night before. He requested one very early, much to Sokka's dismay. Right now Aang could imagine that he was in his home with Katara yelling at him to wake up. It could take a lot to wake Sokka up when he wanted to sleep, and a special meeting early in the morning with the Fire Lord wasn't enough alone to entice him to wake up. It would take a half hour of screaming and objects thrown at him before he slipped out from his bed.

Aang was the first one out of his home, along with Momo on his shoulder. He then leaned against his door, waiting for the other three to get themselves ready. The next one out was Toph, who actually looked somewhat decent. She wasn't covered in dirt today, which made a huge improvement on her appearance.

Aang smiled and laughed silently. "I see you don't have your 'healthy coating of Earth' today, Toph?"

Toph scowled and let out an angry sigh. "You'd better shut up, Twinkle Toes, or you're gonna have a healthy coating of fist."

Aang did shut up for the most part, although he did laugh quietly. Any threat from Toph was one to be taken seriously, but at the same time the fact that a little girl was threatening to punch him just seemed too ironic to not laugh at.

Toph didn't say anything, but instead she found a small puddle of mud to the side and splashed it in Aang's face as Momo flew away to dodge the dirt. Then she started to laugh as Aang rolled his eyes, at least happy that he could get it off with one quick move of Earthbending or Waterbending.

Immediately after this, Katara came out, dragging an unwilling Sokka along with her. Their house was across from Aang's, so his face was the first thing they saw – and the first thing they laughed at. Embarrassed, Aang bended the mud from his face at theirs, which solved his problem of their laughter rather quickly.

Now all of them were involved, and the group soon broke out into a large mud fight. Everyone was participating, covering each other in the dirt. Even Momo sensed what was going on and splashed some onto Sokka, much to his frustration. By the end everyone had ganged up on Toph, who sensed every movement up until that point and dodged every blow. Once everyone had turned against her she welcomed the mud, saying happily to Aang that her "healthy coat has returned".

They walked to the palace and entered (Toph had cleaned herself up by this point), and a guard escorted them to Zuko. They entered the Throne Room, which took on quite a different appearance with the arrival of the new Fire Lord: no longer was the back covered in fire; instead it was empty save for the throne, and there were fire lanterns along the walls to help brighten the room. Zuko seldom sat in his throne; instead he would wander the palace doing whatever it was he needed to be doing rather than having a servant simply take care of it for him.

Zuko did not look happy in the least. Well, that wasn't much of a surprise, but the other four could sense that this was not going to be a good meeting.

There was a small table in the room with five chairs to accommodate everyone in the room. Zuko gave the standard hand signal so that his servant would leave, and the five were alone. Zuko was the first to speak.

"I know that some of you might not appreciate waking up so early-"

"Waking up so early? _Early_ would be in another hour!" Sokka had interrupted Zuko already, and they were not even one sentence into the meeting yet.

Then Katara began yelling, reprimanding Sokka for being so rude. "The Fire Lord himself invites you into the Palace to speak with you, and you can't stay silent for a minute?"

"'The Fire Lord himself'? Katara, it's hardly an invitation when the Fire Lord has been traveling with you for half the summer!"

Zuko interrupted them. "May I continue?" When both of them apologized and fell silent, he continued. "I know that some of you might not appreciate waking up so early, but this is important. I need to borrow Appa."

Aang was confused why Zuko was making such a big deal out of this. He would have let him borrow Appa any day. "Why are we here, then? Of course you can borrow Appa. How long you need him for?"

Zuko frowned and looked towards the table for a moment, then spoke again. "I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Katara asked. "Don't you know where you're going?"

"That's the problem. I need to find my mother, and she could be anywhere in the entire world right now."

All the other four looked at him; even Toph, who had no reason to. Aang said, "Going through the entire world? That could take years. I don't know."

"That's why I called you here. I figured since nobody's really in charge of your group, you all could take a vote."

Sokka spoke. "I'll say yes. Being without Appa for years might be hard, but if it means you could find your mother then we have to take a chance."

Then Katara went. "I'll say yes, too. I lost my mother from the War, but you don't know that yet. You have to look for her."

Toph continued the chain around the circle. "I'll say yes. I'm sure your mother's out there."

Then nobody spoke for a minute.

"Aang?" Zuko was looking at him, waiting for an answer. "I want this to be unanimous; if you don't want me to take Appa for so long, then I won't."

Aang still did not answer for a moment. He was so attached to Appa – Sister Iio from the Eastern Air Temple had said that a Sky Bison was a companion for life, and she was fully correct in that. Appa was Aang's companion, and Aang was not sure if he could give him up for so long. But then again, Zuko's mother was missing – something Aang felt was more important than being away from Appa.

"Fine. You can have him," he said in what may have been the most unconvincing display of approval ever to be uttered.

Zuko was overjoyed. He wrapped his arms around Aang for a hug, nearly dragging him out of his chair as he bolted out the door. The others followed him, barely keeping up with his pace as he ran for the field which had Appa. But before he got very far out of the Palace, a messenger hawk flew for him.

Zuko stopped, impatiently opening the message which had been delivered to him. The others saw him read it, and then stare wide-eyed at it.

"My mother's in Ba Sing Se," he said quietly. "And she's coming here."

The others ran to catch up with him, as he was running so fast that he was a long ways ahead.

"What's the message say?" asked Sokka.

Zuko continued staring at it for a few more seconds. "My mother's coming," he finally answered, and then began walking back.

Katara stared at him for a moment, thinking that he was disappointed somehow. "You are happy about this, aren't you?"

Zuko nodded. "More than I ever have been. I can't even think of what to say, and she's not even here yet."

A day passed, and Zuko waited anxiously for his mother to arrive. She said she would be arriving the next day, and he could wait no longer. He sat on his bed, twiddling his thumbs as the day grew longer and his patience grew shorter. Finally a servant arrived in him room, informing him that his mother had arrived and was waiting for him at the entrance to the Palace.

Zuko began running. Well, this wasn't just simply running – was there something faster than running? He was dashing, sprinting down the hall. He was in a state of euphoria, and he wore an uncharacteristically large grin as he made his way to the front door. The Fire Lord's room was far away from the front door so that would-be attackers would have a number of guards to get by first. This was the first time that Zuko wished he could have a room near the front instead.

When Ursa saw her son coming down the corner, she too rushed towards him. When they both met, they hugged and she kissed him on the cheek and they laughed out of pure joy. Even the guards smiled behind their helmets.

"Let's go into your room," Ursa said. "We have a lot to catch up on."

They entered Zuko's room, Ursa immediately disappointed. "Zuko, if there's one thing you've learned from the time that I've been here, it's that you either make your bed or get a servant to do it for you. How do you expect to sleep in a bed that's all messed up like this?" As she turned to fix it, Zuko rolled his eyes behind her back.

"And I know that you're rolling your eyes. Stop it." Zuko shot a confused glance in her direction, wondering how she could tell. But he just figured that all mothers could tell, and waited for her to be finished with making his bed look neat.

Once the bed looked like nobody had ever sat in it before, Ursa turned around again to face her son. "I suppose you would like to know what happened to me after I left," she said. Zuko nodded.

"Well, after your father made that dishonorable request to Azulon, your grandfather ordered him to kill you so that he could also feel the pain of losing his firstborn son."

"It wouldn't have been much of a pain for him," Zuko said with contempt.

"Sadly enough, yes, and he was going to do it, Zuko. I had to protect you. I had to kill your grandfather."

"You _what_?" Zuko's eyes widened from the mere thought of his mother being a murderer. Up until this point he didn't think that she killed him – he thought that at least she had gotten someone else to.

"Zuko, it was for you. That night when he ate, I poisoned his food. He died peacefully in his sleep. I knew that it was a cause for death right on the spot, and if someone found out that I had killed him, then we couldn't ruin your father's political career, of course." Ursa rolled her eyes at this statement. "Your father said that if I were to make him Fire Lord he would spare me, and say that he has "seen" me do it, and would banish me. So I wrote a letter next to the Fire Lord's bed saying that he had wanted to give Ozai the right to the throne and that it was his dying wish, and sealed it with his seal. I placed it right there, in that spot." She pointed to a small table a few feet away from where they were sitting.

Zuko was still confused as to why this had all happened. "But _why_? Why did you do it in the first place? Or why could you at least have said you'd done it but still gave Uncle Iroh the throne?"

"Because, Zuko, he would have killed you if I hadn't."

Zuko looked down at the floor, knowing that there was no other choice for his mother. "And what did you do in Ba Sing Se? Did you know I was there?"

"In Ba Sing Se? I did what all others do, live as refugees. I fit right in along with them. And so did you, in your uncle's tea shop. I saw you there."

"But then why didn't you at least tell me while I was there?"

"Because in Ba Sing Se, everyone is watched. Everything that goes on is noted. I couldn't blow your cover, nor could I have blown mine. Now, tell me what's happened to you since I left."

Zuko wondered if he could even remember everything that had happened to him. "Well…I suppose I'll start at me attending a war meeting when I was thirteen. I spoke out of turn, and father forced me to duel an Agni Kai. Well, he tried, but I didn't want to, and…he gave me this."

Ursa gasped. She knew that her son and his father never had a very good relationship, but she had never expected something like this. "And what happened next?"

"Then he banished me, and told me that I could only come back with the Avatar, so I travelled with Uncle. The Avatar didn't even appear until three years later, and I found him, and I followed him all the way to the North Pole. And I almost had him, but I failed.

"By then father said that I was a failure for not being able to capture the Avatar, and Uncle was a traitor to the Fire Nation for stopping Zhao from destroying the Moon Spirit at the North Pole."

Ursa interrupted him. "Captain Zhao? That nasty man? I could never stand him."

"Actually, it was Admiral by then, but the Moon Spirit was revived by some girl and it and the Avatar destroyed his entire fleet and killed him. But then Azula was sent to capture both of us and take us home as prisoners, so we became refugees. While we were travelling me and Uncle got into a fight and we split up, but he followed me in secret. Then we found each other at an abandoned town where Azula was attacking the Avatar, and we and his friends all attacked Azula, but she attacked Iroh and left. So then we fled to Ba Sing Se, but Azula was there and she teamed up with the Dai Li to overthrow the city and threw us in prison."

At this point Ursa was glaring; not at Zuko, but at the thought that her daughter would have her son thrown in prison. It was just unbelievable.

"One of the Avatar's friends was there, and I thought I had changed to their side, but Azula showed up at the same time as Uncle and the Avatar and got me to help her. And then she attacked the Avatar, and would have killed him, but I knew his friend had spirit water from the North Pole to help revive him.

"Then I was welcomed back home as a war hero, and I found out that Azula told them that I had killed the Avatar so that way in case he was really alive, I would take the blow to my honour. Then the eclipse came, but everyone was prepared for it, so the city was evacuated. I confronted father, and told him that I would join the Avatar. He made me stay so that he could tell me about what happened to you."

"What did he tell you?" Ursa was curious as to whether Ozai told him the truth.

"He told me that he was going to kill me, and that you had helped him be Fire Lord and kill Azulon. Then he said you were banished. But he was just tricking me. He only made me stay so that he could try and kill me, but I escaped and joined the Avatar. Eventually, on the day of the comet, I faced Azula, who was just about to become Fire Lord."

Ursa stared again, not knowing that she was so close to becoming Fire Lord. "And what happened?"

"We dueled an Agni Kai. And the Avatar's girlfriend and I beat her."

Ursa gasped again, knowing that Agni Kais might result in death. Realizing that this was what his mother was thinking, Zuko spoke again. "We didn't kill her. She shot me with lightning, but the girl revived me and eventually chained her. She went insane. She's at a mental facility on an island near here; I even visited her a few days ago."

Ursa was still not completely relieved; her daughter going insane and being housed in one of those prisons wasn't exactly what she was hoping for.

But she hugged her son, happy that she was finally home.


	3. Chapter 3: Reunion

_Knock, knock_. Katara waited patiently at the door. She didn't know that she should be here, but it was something she felt she had to do.

But what was taking so long? The girl she was waiting for was blind, yes, but not deaf. And her bed wasn't far from the door, so even if she were to have just woken up, she wouldn't have to walk very far to go and open it.

Perhaps she wasn't home, and Katara would end up waiting here for no reason. But she hadn't seen Toph leave, and she wouldn't know why the girl would have to. They all had gotten food and supplies recently, all free for the Avatar, who (albeit unsuccessfully) tried as hard as he could to pay. (This drove Sokka mad, who would accept free food in a heartbeat. No, not even that – a heartbeat was too slow.)

Katara looked up as she heard the knob turn. The door opened, and Toph was standing there. "Yes?" she asked. Toph wasn't exactly one to mind her manners, and Katara knew not to expect anything resembling a "Good morning Katara, how do you do?"

Katara breathed a heavy sigh. "Toph, I know it's annoying, and this is the last time I'm asking. But do you want me to take you to your parents? I think it's crucial for you to see them again, and I'd really like for you to go."

Toph glowered at Katara, apparently furious. "You're right that this is the last time you're asking!" She couldn't take it anymore. Deep down, she did miss her parents, but she was sure as hell not going to show it. She didn't want anyone to think that she was weak.

To make sure she was correct in her statement, she sent a small boulder at Katara's midsection. She didn't send it to hurt her, just knock her over. And once she knew she succeeded in that, Toph turned around and slammed the door shut.

But Katara wasn't going to take this lying down, literally nor metaphorically. She squirmed out from under the large rock and stormed towards Toph's house, bending some water from a nearby fountain to follow her. She burst in, using some of the water to slap Toph in the face. "A simple 'no' would have been fine!" she shouted.

"Fine, then. No!" Following this was another rock that was a chunk of the stone floor. Katara easily dodged it; she knew that Toph didn't want to hurt her, and her attacks wouldn't be as intense as normal.

Katara blew her hair out of her face. "Again, not necessary!" Normally she was the one to settle a fight rather than continue one, but this was something she had to win. For Toph's sake. And again she used some water to slap the girl's face, which was retaliated against with yet another piece of stone. Soon the two girls were in a fight, and they were evenly matched. Both were strong-willed and determined to win, and a few rocks to the face or a forceful blow from a stream of water weren't going to stop them. But eventually the fight was over when Toph was up against a wall and Katara seized the opportunity to pin her to it with ice.

Toph struggled to free her limbs from their frozen restraints, but Katara had brought enough water with her to render useless any muscle power that Toph could possibly provide. "Let me go!" she shouted. "This isn't over!"

Katara shook her head. "No, it's not. I'll let you go once you agree to see your parents."

Toph stopped struggling. "Alright, fine. I miss them. And I want to see them again."

Immediately the ice melted into liquid and Toph was free again. Walking towards the door where most of the stones were, she hit Katara in the arm with as much strength as she could muster. Katara winced and rubbed her arm where a bruise was now likely to show up.

Later that day, Toph and Katara boarded Appa. Katara gave the command and Appa rose into the air, Toph holding onto a handle of his saddle as tightly as humanly possible. But she wasn't thinking about how frightening and terrifying it was to be in the air. She was thinking about how she was going home. Her home, in Gaoling.

They landed just outside the Bei Fong Estate, where guards were quick to meet them. They held up, of course, after Toph showed them her Family Document. Realizing that it was the daughter of the Bei Fongs, they immediately escorted the pair to the main household. Some guards went ahead of them to notify Toph's parents that she had arrived.

Mr. and Mrs. Bei Fong were already waiting for them at the front door. They immediately ran up to Toph and hugged them as Katara stepped aside to watch. "We missed you," Poppy said. "And we're the proudest parents in the world. Come inside with us so you can have some dinner. You too," she said, looking at Katara.

"We were disappointed that you ran away, but at the same time we're proud of what you have done," Lao said. He then took a bite of food, staring lovingly at his daughter. Then when he swallowed, he continued speaking. "But your mother and I have made the decision to keep you home."

Toph stood up, knowing that if she didn't leave now there would be little way out of this. "No! After twelve years of my life nobody knew I even existed until I joined the Avatar!"

Toph's father stood up as well, walking over to grab his daughter's arm. "As your parents, we legally have control of you. Now you can live your life normally, and we won't watch you, but you are _not_ leaving us again!" He grabbed hold of her arm and dragged her with him, motioning for Katara to leave.

But Toph, however, wasn't giving up so easily. "Well _legally_ you might have control over me," she said, "but in _reality_, I'm leaving!" She used Earthbending to launch a large piece of stone at the lower part of his legs, successfully knocking him over and causing him to lose his grip. Toph started to run, shouting for Katara to come with her. The guards chased after the two but they were no match for Toph, who used a few simple Earthbending moves to slow them down enough for Katara and her to make it all the way to Appa. They boarded him quickly, and he began to fly. Mr. and Mrs. Bei Fong stared desolately at their daughter, who was soaring away from them more quickly than they could possibly catch. She was gone.

Toph dared not put her head over the edge of the saddle, although it didn't really matter since she wouldn't be able to see her home anyway. She sat on the seat, wondering if she made the right decision. She had broken both her parents' hearts and left them for the second time. What if she never saw them again? Would she ever talk to them?

Katara looked at Toph, knowing that she would be completely distraught after the decision she made. But one thing still surprised her – a tear was rolling down the side of Toph's face. It was but one tear, yet it still stunned Katara to see the girl cry.

"Toph," she began, but she was immediately interrupted.

"I know. I just miss them already." And that was the end of that. "I just realized…I have no family now."

Katara reached a hand out to Toph's shoulder and brought the girl closer to her. "It's okay. We're your family."


	4. Chapter 4: Omashu Attacked

He could feel the power surge through him as the sky turned a blood-red colour. Never again in his life would he feel the sheer energy pulsing through his veins, overwhelming his body as he lead the team of ninety-nine other men across the bridge. They all felt the same feeling, but none of them would enjoy it like he did. Power was what fueled him, and today he would be filled up.

Di Ren threw his fist into the air above him, sending a long jet of fire towards the sky. Today his fire burned hotter than ever, and he enjoyed every moment of it. He wanted to be the one to do the most damage today. He would not waste a second of this once-in-a-lifetime event. He would not spare anyone that got in his way, men, women, children and infants alike.

The newly-liberated city of Omashu grew closer. They were walking along the only entrance to the city, a narrow pathway that required the guards to line up in three columns as they marched across. They began marching quickly; each second it took them to enter the city was a second of the comet that was wasted. There were four guards at the gate who tried to stop them, but they were easily powered by the strength of one hundred Firebenders whose bending was increased tenfold.

The wall was also no match for them. A few of the large group of soldiers blasted a hole large enough to fit through, and they entered.

The soldiers were ruthless. They gave only a minute's warning to the city's inhabitants. After the sixty seconds were up, they began burning houses; some soldiers even blasted homes so powerfully that they simply were gone.

Of course, they were fought against. There were Earthbenders in the city, and many of them did what they could to try and stop the soldiers, but it was to no effect. They were unstoppable with the comet.

Di Ren was a madman. He destroyed every object in his path. He was making his way to the Royal Palace to turn it to ashes. He had already received word that Bumi was nowhere to be found, however, which was a major problem. After the city was liberated on the day of the eclipse, the Fire Lord wanted the king, as he put it, as his "personal prisoner".

But finishing the mission as it was intended to be finished was only a small part of why Di Ren was here. The main event was burning the entire city to the ground, which he succeeded at. He worked his way up the steep slope of the city, making sure to incinerate everything he could possibly reach. He saw a house in which a mother and her small child were hiding in, not wanting to face the Firebenders as they tried to escape. He saw them through the window, smirking at the fear visible on their faces.

Gone. Wiped out in a few seconds. And as for the two inside, they simply no longer existed.

_It was the price to pay for disobeying the commands of the Fire Nation_, he thought to himself.

The Palace was a few yards away. Nobody was left to stop him. There was no more screaming; all those who had obeyed, had left. The entire city was dead silent, save for the noise created by the massive amounts of fire being produced. It was a sweet sound to Di Ren. And it was about to become much sweeter.

He immediately began releasing fire as he approached the Palace. He stared at it with what seemed like a crazed stare as it was demolished by two enormous jets of flame. He made sure to reach every corner of the Palace, enjoying every moment of its destruction. By now the entire city was wiped off the face of the Earth, and it was only this part of it that was left. The other soldiers, who at this point had nothing left to do, helped in destroying it, and after a few minutes of intense Firebending it was gone, just like the rest of the city.

Di Ren burned the Fire Nation insignia into a small piece of stone before turning around to his troops, simply saying, "Good work. The Fire Lord will be pleased. Now let's leave." The hundred warriors began marching back down the city, towards the once-great wall surrounding it. They made their way across the long, narrow bridge, at the end of which a small fleet of war balloons was waiting for them.

They boarded their war balloons, and Di Ren watched the now-refugees fleeing for Ba Sing Se. As his balloon passed directly over them, he laughed loudly enough for them to hear clearly. The once-great Earth Kingdom city was now nonexistent. The comet was now just about to leave, and for a final celebration Di Ren sent a blast of fire that would just miss the citizens, causing the ones nearby to cower away from it. Di Ren laughed another wicked laugh as he flew away on his war balloon to return home a war hero.

* * *

King Bumi, who unknowingly was now just a Bumi, was travelling back to what he thought was his great city. He travelled alone via Earthbending, and was going at a fairly quick pace. He was now close to the city, but something struck him as odd. At this point he was usually able to see some of the buildings. Unless they were…no. It was impossible. The Fire Nation had been defeated.

Bumi sped up, going at an almost uncontrollable pace towards the bridge. But there was nothing left of it. The wall had been breached. The city had been burnt down. All that was left were mere piles rocks, and the shadow of a once-great stronghold. The entire area was deserted, or at least it seemed that way.

Bumi rushed into the city, yelling to see if anyone was left. But there was no one. Nothing could tell him of what happened, save for a single rock that sported the Fire Nation insignia. Not that it gave him any more information than what he had already known. It was quite obvious that this had been done by the Fire Nation. But there was no clue as to _what_ had happened, or if anyone even survived at all.

Perhaps they didn't survive. Maybe the people that invaded his city completely disregarded its citizen's lives. It was quite possible to Bumi that he was the only one left. He was the only thing left of this place. And if he was, it then meant that he failed as a king. He failed to protect his city, to be there when it needed him. Instead he was hundreds of miles away in Ba Sing Se, which was not where he needed to be.

But he knew where he needed to go now.

* * *

"Sir. You have a visitor, King Bumi of Omashu."

Zuko stared at his servant for a moment. He saw the king the night before Sozin's Comet arrived. He didn't seem very…right in the head. Zuko hadn't said anything then, of course, for the sake of being polite, but it made him wonder why the king was showing up at his doorstep without warning. He was probably thanking him, for all he and Aang had done. Why wouldn't he? After all, they had brought peace to every nation on the planet, ending a century-long war and allowing the entire human population to be that much safer. Why wouldn't a major leader be thanking him?

King Bumi walked into the Throne Room, in which Zuko was spending the time he rarely spent in there – he couldn't just sit around all day; he wasn't one for all the incessant pampering that came with the title of Fire Lord. But Bumi looked like he needed it – he appeared to be very tired and battered, and not at all happy. It looked like he wouldn't be thanking Zuko any time soon.

"Omashu…is gone." That was all he had said. That was all he could bear to say.

A look of concern made its way onto Zuko's face. "How is that possible? You took it back, you drove them all away – the War is over!"

"But it ended too late." And Bumi told Zuko how he had traveled back to his once-great city, only to find nothing. "You wouldn't have thought a city was once there," he said. And as for the people who once lived there, there was no trace of them either. As far as Bumi knew, they were all burned along with the city, ashes among ashes of the buildings.

It all seemed impossible to Zuko. It _had_ to be impossible. He had never heard anything from his father regarding this plan. In the short time he had returned to the Fire Nation, he heard so much about the military…had Zuko missed something along the way? But it seemed so unlikely; out of all the plans, to miss a plan so grand as the complete destruction of the second-largest Earth Kingdom city –

And then it hit him. Of course he missed it: he wasn't there. Bumi regained his city on the day of the eclipse. And where was Zuko after the eclipse? With the Avatar. Of course, he knew his father was setting to burn down the Earth Kingdom, and its second-largest city would surely be one of his targets. But Zuko had assumed all the burning would be done by his father. After all, there didn't seem to be any other incidents of cities being burned down – none that were very major, at least. So if his father didn't do it, the question was…who did?

Well, wasn't that a puzzle.

* * *

For the time being, Bumi was living at a small home nearby the Palace. Zuko had quickly begun his search for the leader of the army which had burned down Omashu. Of course, being the supreme ruler of the Fire Nation, this wouldn't be hard – he could easily find out the names of every single person who served in the army during the arrival of the Comet. He didn't know what he would do with the actual city once he had completed this task, but he would come up with something. Zuko wasn't the best at thinking of plans beforehand.

Zuko had gotten a servant to gather a list of those who were high-ranked in the army, and information on where they were during the eclipse. There were certain names he were looking for; for many of them he had already known where they were, which helped to narrow down the list even further. Finally he had come to the name he had expected in the first place: Di Ren. Next to his name was the city of Omashu.

Di Ren. He was a monster, as Zuko recalled. He was as bad as Zuko's father, and mostly everybody who knew him, feared him. But still, it was an honor to be in his group. They were unstoppable; the Dai Li of the Fire Nation, and every single one of its inhabitants knew it. Di Ren had a talent (if you want to call it that) for striking fear into the hearts of everyone he met – come to think of it, he was just like Azula as well. Zuko could swear Di Ren was related to his family. He didn't know anybody that scary who wasn't.

But now, the question was what to do with Di Ren. Should Zuko kill him? And what about his hundred elite? It just didn't seem like a good idea; he didn't punish any other Fire Nation Army members who had willfully ceased all operations pertaining to the War. The few who still tried to continue what had been already been ended were a different story, but Di Ren hadn't done anything wrong after the War ended. If Zuko wanted to be fair, he could not punish Di Ren. But fairness really was the last thing on his mind right now…

No. He could do nothing. It wouldn't be right to punish him, and not everybody else who had been fighting the same war.

* * *

He crept in quietly. He knew what he was doing was dangerous, and that he could very well die if everything was not executed perfectly. What he was most afraid of, was that he would be too loud walking in. You can't assassinate someone in their sleep if they aren't sleeping, and he knew he wouldn't win if it wasn't done while they were sleeping.

But Di Ren had taken care to make sure it would go just as planned. Zuko had to die with a plan this good, he just had to. He had predicted already that some people in the Fire Nation wouldn't change, a prediction he was right in making. And some of the guards, whom Zuko trusted in his naïvity, were not loyal to him, but to the ruler he had overthrown. It was because of this that he could enter the Palace without opposition, as the guards he needed were just _where_ he needed.

After Zuko died, Di Ren would take the throne. And being the magnificent plotter he was, he had covered everything necessary for this to be possible as well. Powerful men had powerful connections, and Di Ren was no exception. He had hired someone to forge a note so that it appeared to be written by Zuko, stating that in fear of assassination he wished to be succeeded by Di Ren due to his excellent service in the War. And then he had found the Fire Lord's official seal, and stamped it.

Also hired was a man who made a natural sedative, which would prevent Zuko from waking up. This was due to the fact that Di Ren could not leave any burns on the Fire Lord, as a doctor (who Di Ren had also hired) would announce that Zuko had died peacefully in his sleep. Unfortunately, this burnless method would cause great discomfort to him in his sleep, which meant that he could not be able to wake up. Di Ren would slowly heat his head so as to raise his internal temperature without causing any physical signs. It was the perfect plan, from the perfect planner.

Then there was the final problem, that being the Avatar and his friends. To fix this, he had set up one of his men for each of them, waiting for any of them to walk outside. They would not kill – no, doing so would create an outrage amongst the people. Also, it would be suspicious as well for more than one of such important people to die in the same night. Yes, they would just silently knock them out using whatever methods necessary, then drag them back into their homes, and return to their positions.

Now Di Ren had just slipped Zuko the sedative. He would be in a very heavy sleep for three hours, which was longer than needed to finish this – in reality, Di Ren only needed about an hour. This might have seemed long, but it was necessary to do everything perfectly. But first, a three-minute wait for the sedative to take effect. This would be the worst part for him.

"Sleep tight, now." He pulled a chair to the side of the bed, and sat down.

The first minute was an eternity. Never had Di Ren been so impatient in his life. He quickly became bored…but there was nobody else but him and –

Then a blast of fire came from nowhere. He reacted and successfully dodged it, but was confused – it came from the door, not from Zuko. Standing there was a guard who had found out about this plan. He lied to Di Ren about his allegiance, knowing he could have the power to stop the assassination and save the new Fire Lord.

Zuko shot straight up. The sedative was halfway to taking full effect – only 90 seconds left now. Everything seemed…blurry. He couldn't concentrate on what was happening. All he saw were streaks of fire, and then one man fell. And then there were a few more streaks of fire…what was going on? Who was – he couldn't even complete that thought. Everything went black.


	5. Chapter 5: Ozai's Followers

Ever since the War ended, Iroh was following a simple lifestyle. He ate, he relaxed, he slept…what more was there? For him, nothing much but tea. Tea, tea, tea. He had opened a second shop in the Fire Nation, where he now resided; the Jasmine Dragon was still open in Ba Sing Se, and his tea was still shipped there year-round. But that was it for him: food, relaxation, tea, and sleep. And that was how he wanted it to be.

So when Iroh was abruptly woken from his slumber, he knew something was up. Then he heard it: fire. Someone was fighting someone. And unfortunately, his nephew was usually involved in those fights. He threw his blankets off them, jumping out of bed and bolting down the hallway. It wasn't a rather long run, which Iroh was infinitely thankful for.

Yes, just as he predicted, the fire was coming from Zuko's room. But Zuko was on his bed, watching and not doing anything. There were ten other men in the room, in two groups of five. They were doing all the fighting, but Iroh wasn't concerned about them – all he knew was that his son – no, his nephew; what was he thinking? – was in danger. That was all that mattered.

The ten who were in combat were too distracted to notice him as he ran in and grabbed Zuko's now-unconscious body, taking it with him as he ran. He tried shaking Zuko awake as he made his way down as many twists and turns as possible, trying to make it as hard as he could for anybody to find them. The hallways were deserted; now everyone had heard the fight break out and wanted to see what was going on.

Finally Iroh tired, and rested for a moment. He had gained a sufficient distance from what he assumed to be Zuko's attackers, and locked himself and his nephew in a room. Zuko would not respond to anything. Immediately, Iroh began fearing that he was dead. Panic swept over his body, but he managed to control it and think rationally. Zuko's body was warm. He was breathing. Iroh checked – yes, his heart was beating. His nephew was fully alive, but something would not allow him to wake up. Iroh just had to wait until he did.

Meanwhile, in Zuko's bedroom the guards who had fought for him were either dead, or ran away to hide. There were 156 guards stationed somewhere in the entire Palace, and 98 were currently with Di Ren. Five of them, however, had managed to sneak into their group as "double agents" of sorts – in the battle, they had slipped into the other side, completely unseen. Nobody did do a very good job of paying attention.

"Search the Palace! The Fire Lord must be found dead!" The guards followed Di Ren's command, scattering throughout the various hallways and searching each room. He, however, knew his plan was falling apart with each passing moment. Some people knew that should not have known, and were sure to let the word out that he had tried to kill the Fire Lord. And now that so many guards were killed in the fiery battle that had just taken place, he could never successfully convince anybody with a positive IQ that Zuko had died peacefully in his sleep.

Di Ren had to run. Where, he didn't know. But he had to abandon the city. Abandon his life, if he wanted to stay alive. Perhaps he could one day take the throne, but now was not the time…it could even take years before it would be possible for him again. Di Ren was a patient man, and his patience could extend for years if it needed to. He could plot and plot all he wanted, but for now…escape was necessary.

He had a hard time accepting this, still. Di Ren was not a coward by any means – to run away when he was in danger was cowardly, yes? He would have no honor to his name anymore; he would have to wait until this night was forgotten if he wanted to even cross the border into the Fire Nation again. But he had to swallow his pride, and flee. Now.

"You shouldn't have gone with the Avatar. You are our little girl." Toph tossed and turned in her sleep. She had been having this dream every night since she last saw her parents. She was immediately jolted awake from her nightmare, deciding to take a walk outside to try and calm herself down.

Toph exited her home, took a few steps, and then froze. Something was on top of her house; she could feel it. It felt like…a person.

"No, you're just stupid," she thought aloud. "You're tired…it's just an animal there. Completely harmless." She walked a few more steps, but then the mysterious figure jumped. That jump was a jump from a person; after the months she had spent with Aang and Co., and all the jumping from Twinkle Toes, she knew what it felt like.

As soon as the figure landed, she sent a rock flying towards whoever this person was. She had no idea how large the rock was, or how badly the person would be hurt, but she probably didn't have too much time before something happened. This person, whom she identified as a man, didn't feel like Aang or any of her other friends – he didn't leave the same pressure on the ground, nor was his shape the same. Thank God. What would have happened if it was someone she knew?

Then something happened that had never crossed her mind. She felt a few more figures move from the other homes, all of them approaching her. One by one, she quickly took out them all. Toph waited, completely motionless. She felt no more people on the rooftops, or anywhere else outside. Wait – one more. There was something near him as well. She sent a rock that way, missing the man but smashing what seemed like a box next to him. A cry of "My cabbages!" promptly followed that.

Now assuming she was alone, Toph went straight to Sokka's house and knocked on his door, loudly enough that it woke up Aang in the next house over. The two boys were worried already…what could Toph, _Toph_ out of all people, possibly need in the middle of the night? If it were Katara, Sokka would be less worried, but Toph…

"I need help. Something's wrong; there were a bunch of guys outside and they _attacked_ me."

Immediately Aang and Sokka rushed over to her house. They looked around it, finding a few men who were lying on the ground, unconscious. All of the men were dressed in the same uniform, the looks of which made it pretty clear that they were Fire Nation.

Sokka stared with concern for another moment, then said, "I think…someone's still out to get us."

They woke Katara and Suki up, and rushed to the Palace. If there was a person to go to about Fire Nation whatever-they-were attacking you, then the Fire Nation ruler would be your guy. But Katara wasn't so certain that it was a good idea. She thought Zuko could be behind all of it. After all, they were supposedly "safe", and that obviously wasn't the case…and they _were_ wearing Fire Nation uniforms of some sort. What if he had been lying to them from the beginning about joining them? What if he was just some power-crazed freak who had this master scheme to ascend to the throne and then kill Aang? No, it couldn't be. He was sincere about it, even Toph said he wasn't lying – then again, his sister Azula could render Toph useless when it came to lie detecting, so that skill could run through the family, and Zuko _did_ have a lot of practice lying…

The closer the five got to the Palace, the more they heard something. And after the past months, they knew this sound very well: fire. Someone was mad at someone, and they were fairly sure Zuko was involved…hopefully on their side.

Now they were running. Suki and Aang were far ahead of the other three, not waiting for them to catch up, or even catch their breaths. The closest to them was Sokka, who was trailing by at least a good twenty feet. Then the fire stopped, and they heard nothing. What happened? Was Zuko alright? It's a terrible thing to be left in the dark.

They still ran, and entered the Palace to find a number of guards searching frantically about. At first they went unnoticed, but soon enough a guard turned his head and saw the Avatar and his friends running around among them, searching as they were for the same person. "It's the Avatar!" he shouted, and then it was all over. They were caught.

The first shot was from the guard who had seen them in the first place. Then all the rest joined in, whipping fireballs at the group. They did a fine job at defending themselves, but with so many guards, fighting back wasn't going to be easy. In a moment of inspiration, Aang used his powerful Airbending to blast a hole through the ceiling, and grabbed Katara, making the leap upwards into the second floor. He jumped back down and grabbed onto Toph and Sokka (who was holding on to Suki), and leapt to safety again with them.

Aang knew that he couldn't keep the guards off for long. Eventually, he would be out of floors to jump through. Then he would be surrounded, with nowhere to go. If he was alone or maybe with just one or two people, then he would use his glider – four people was too much for it to handle. He had to think, and think quickly.

Then Aang noticed some movement in the corner – there were two people there. Both were on the ground. He recognized them…Zuko and Iroh.

"Er…hello? Do you need help?" It was a stupid question, he knew. Of _course_ they needed help. They were under attack from the very people protecting them, and Zuko seemed to be either dead or simply unconscious. Hopefully unconscious – it was an unfortunate position to be in by wishing that for your friend…

Iroh turned and looked at the five. He had noticed them come in, and was ready to attack them, thinking they were what he was still calling "guards" – they weren't really guards anymore, but what other name was there? – but he knew it was the Avatar, and decided not to bother them. They could come to him if they needed to. He would not focus on anything but his nephew for a single moment.

"Yes, but there is no way you can," he finally replied. He then stopped to check Zuko – breathing, yes. Heartbeat, yes. "There are too many of them for us to fight."

Toph then piped up with, "We can take them! They're no match for us."

Iroh shook his head. "No. There are too many of them. Perhaps there is a good chance you could beat them all, but what is the chance that one of you will be hurt? If you are willing to take the risk, then by all means, go, but just remember what you could lose."

They stopped for a moment, forgetting that with every passing moment the guards were advancing on them.

Aang finally broke the momentary silence. "We've risked more already than we possibly could here."

Then Aang unlocked the door, running outside. There were about thirty guards in the hallway, who seemed to have just made it up the stairs. The number of them had strangely dropped, and by a significant amount as well. Aang assumed they had just split up to cover the entire Palace, and that there would be more waiting for him as he kept going.

The front fifteen guards joined in a group attack, one they obviously had planned out already. Five sent out a blast at eye level as strong as they could make, while five others did the same, but underneath them near their feet. And five more joined by blasting towards the ceiling, with the combined fire filling the entire space available. When Di Ren created this technique, he knew it was unstoppable, unblockable.

Or so he thought.

Aang lost sense of what was going on. Everything that was going on, his surroundings, his thoughts; all faded from his mind. It was like being unconscious, yet still awake. He lost control of himself, his body moving on what appeared to be its own accord. The fire began flowing towards him, as if it were all directing itself at the Avatar. But in reality, it was being channeled throughout his body, redirected by him.

The guards saw this happening and began to flee the hallway. A few began down the staircase, but not before Aang blasted all the fire back towards where it came from. This was the same fire that he had absorbed, exactly how it was before he redirected it. It was no stronger, nor had it lost energy; it was simply being guided by his hands.

After the fire had completely left his body, Aang returned to his normal state. He saw the hallway, but not as it appeared a few seconds ago – it was black, completely burnt and charred. There was nobody left attacking him; Aang wasn't sure if he killed them or if they all successfully fled. But he didn't want to think about that. He might not like the answer.

Then he turned around, remembering that his friends were with him as well. They all stood motionless, jaws dropped as close to the floor as they could get. Of course, that wasn't much of a surprise – Aang had just performed in front of them an amazing technique which had never existed before. Anyone who wouldn't have been in awe either wasn't paying attention, or was crazy.

"That…was _awesome_!" This came from none other than Sokka, who couldn't decide whether he was in love or in shock. After a few seconds of deliberation, he decided it was love. Yes, definitely love. "Where did you learn that?"

But Aang was just as confused as everybody else was. "I…I have no idea. I don't even know what that's _called_." He scratched his head, trying to think of when he had learned that. He would have remembered it if he had, right? But he couldn't think of one single memory where he had learned that before – oh, the wonders of being the Avatar…

They then proceeded to search the castle for anybody else remaining, but the entire place was deserted. Then they ran into Mai and Ursa at one point, and explained what was happening. Mai showed some concern, which, admittedly, was a big step for her, but Ursa was beside herself. She ran to the room where Zuko was, sobbing and gasping. Zuko simply would not wake up, and she was beginning to doubt that he would at all.

Two and a half hours later, he began to show some sort of activity. He was mumbling something incomprehensible, but it was a major sign that he was going to be okay. Iroh began shaking him violently, trying to wake him up. Still, nothing would work.

Then a half-hour later, Zuko finally regained consciousness. At first everything seemed fuzzy, just as it had when the sedative had gone into effect three hours before. Everybody, especially Ursa, was badgering him with questions, but he wasn't in a right state to answer them. It took a few minutes before he could think and see clearly, and finally was able to tell them the one answer they feared: "I don't know."

"I don't know," meant that they couldn't get names immediately. They had to search, and it was very possible that there weren't any signs as to what had happened. Sokka immediately stood up, having been kneeling over Zuko before, and made his way to Zuko's bedroom. He was a hundred percent sure that something happened there – after all, this had started in the middle of the night. Where else would it take place but a bedroom?

The rest followed him in, and began searching as he did. They looked all around for some clue; _anything_ that could lead them to the culprit behind all this. Obviously the guards were involved, but there had to be someone who was leading them. They needed to find him.

They were stumped. There were no clues; nothing was out of place. But there was one place that nobody looked – the small desk near Zuko's bed. It was the only place left untouched, as nobody thought that something would be left there. Sokka opened the top drawer, ready to rummage through the contents, but some sort of official document was right on top. It had the Fire Lord's official seal on it, which confirmed that this was definitely something important.

"Who is Di Ren?" Sokka asked. Zuko turned to face him.

"Di Ren was the one that burned down Omashu. Why?"

Sokka immediately became concerned, and a little angry. "What is it?" Zuko asked.

"You little –" He couldn't even complete that sentence. "I can't believe you!"

"What, what _is_ it?" Zuko was becoming a little annoyed now. "Tell me!"

"You said here that he would be Fire Lord if you died without a son!" Now everyone else in the room was in shock, although none were as much as Zuko. Aang shot a dirty look at Zuko, wondering what was going through his mind. Zuko snatched the document, reading it over. It was his handwriting, his seal. Everything was written as if it were an official Fire Nation document. Well…it was, as far as anyone knew.

"I didn't write this…this is why something happened tonight. He tried to kill me. He wants to be Fire Lord."

They immediately began a city-wide search for Di Ren, but it was to no avail. By the time they began the search, he was long gone. But he was already planning his return, and he would be back with the worst weapon of all.


	6. Chapter 6: Descent, Part 1

Days went by without incident since the night during which Zuko nearly lost his life. Still, however, he was becoming more paranoid with every passing day. He had gotten rid of all his guards, as he did not know who could or could not be trusted. Of course, this came with a major disadvantage: it meant that his own protection took a huge dent. He still had his friends and uncle, sure, but there was nobody beyond that.

Ursa was a wreck. She feared greatly for the life of her son, and it was taking a toll on her. She was going through nights sleepless, and it was making her physically ill. Zuko even pondered sending her to a safer place for a short while, but she resented the idea. "There is no other place in the world that I could be but here," she said. "Haven't we been apart long enough?"

And so his family remained with him. Without guards, however, the Palace was uncharacteristically empty. It was quite an eerie feeling; ironically, it often made Zuko feel like somebody was there. He constantly looked behind him, as if he would catch someone following him.

Along with paranoia, Zuko was becoming much more reserved. He hadn't left the Palace at all, in fear of somebody trying to kill him. He hadn't talked to any of his friends either, save for one: Katara. She never left him alone; she was even more persistent than his mother, who would at least accept the fact that he didn't want to talk about anything. Katara, however, couldn't bring herself to do that. She _had_ to help him. It was the absolute, most irritating thing to Zuko.

Katara was having a good track record lately with the whole "opening up" thing. After all, she had gotten Toph to open up about missing her parents. Toph, the tough one who attacked Katara over her annoying determination, opened up. It sounded impossible, but Katara made it happen.

And she was going to make it happen with Zuko as well. She had this in mind as she opened the tall doors to the Palace, making her way through the various hallways to the room she knew already that Zuko was in: the Throne Room. He had spent countless hours in there recently, despite having rarely been seen in there when he was first Fire Lord.

Katara could see the doors now, about thirty feet away. She tried to start thinking of what to say to him; how she could convince the Fire Lord to spill his feelings. It was funny, in a way: she had helped defeat the most powerful and dangerous man on the planet, doing what anybody would think impossible, and yet now she was struggling to think of how to get her friend to tell her what was bothering him and how she could help. Somehow, the latter seemed more unlikely.

As Katara opened the doors, she saw Zuko sitting right where she had expected. He looked disconcerted, and rightfully so, considering everything that had happened. But her presence certainly didn't seem to help.

"Get out," were the first words that reached her ears upon opening those doors. "Well," Katara replied, "that certainly isn't a polite way to greet someone. And I think you and I both know the chances of me leaving."

"About the same as me telling you anything, so don't waste your time."

Katara scowled at the reply. "I don't understand why you're so averse to talking. I just want to help you!"

"Maybe it's because there's nothing to talk about, so leave!"

"Yes; there is obviously _nothing_ to talk about. All that's happened in the past few days is that you nearly died, then got rid of every single guard in the Palace, and now you haven't talked to anyone for days! Everything's perfectly normal!"

"I'm not talking to you, so I'd suggest that you go."

"Or _what_?" Katara had realized that her face was inches away from Zuko now; she had been advancing on him ever so slowly in her anger. They were both glaring furiously into the other's eyes, and remained locked in that position for what seemed like a century before Zuko finally broke the silence.

"Just get out. Now."

Katara growled, her face livid at the response to the help she was trying to give. "You know what, _fine_! If you don't need to talk to me, then I don't mind! Just stay in here forever by yourself for all I care!" She stormed out of the room, Zuko following her as the two continued to exchange enraged words. Finally, they reached the main entrance to the Palace, and she left. Zuko closed the door and began to walk back toward the Throne Room. Finally, he could have some quiet.

Well, that quiet didn't last too long. A scream came from outside just seconds after he had closed the door.

"She's just still mad," Zuko said to himself. It was nothing to worry about.

Meanwhile, Aang was in his home, meditating on the events that had happened before. Somehow, he was able to absorb energy from a fire attack, and redirect it back at the attackers. Now, he realized this was possible with lightning, but he had no idea it was possible with regular fire. The again, did anyone have an idea? Nobody had told him of this earlier, and it surely would have been helpful the other countless times he had to escape from Firebenders.

Further than that, Aang killed people. Not just a person or two, but a lot of people. Granted, they were trying to kill him and he had no control over what he was doing, but it was something that the child - after all, he _was_ still a child - could not deal with lightly. It meant that he didn't have control over his powers. To Aang, it meant that he still was not ready to handle the responsibility of being Avatar. He had been overwhelmed in the Avatar State that day, and it was something that could not happen again.

"Avatar Roku, I seek your wisdom," was the only noise in a home filled with silence. And right on cue, the previous incarnation of the Avatar made himself visible to Aang. "Aang," he said, "I know why you are calling me, and I have the answers you desire."

"Roku, why? Why did I do that? I thought I could control myself in the Avatar State now. What's wrong with me?"

"There is nothing wrong with you, Aang. I'll admit, this was my own fault - I took control of your by surprise. You had no way of knowing."

"Then what did you make me do? And why couldn't I do it before?"

"Aang, when you learned Energybending, you opened up a wide rang of possibilities that you alone could never see all of. They are so great, that it takes more than one mind to see them all."

"That was…Energybending?"

"Yes, it was. You see, Aang, when a Firebender creates his fire, not only is energy from the sun important, but his own internal energy is as well. When you were taught Energybending, I saw the connection between the two, and realized that with Energybending, one should be able to manipulate fire. As you can see, I was right - and I think it may have saved your life, and your friends'."

"I could have done that fine on my own! I didn't need your help!"

Although Aang was starting to get irritated, Roku remained calm and didn't show any sign of annoyance. "Aang, you could not have defeated them all without killing some, and I knew you could not do that on your own."

Aang stood up, visibily angry. "Then why kill that many? You didn't have to get all of them! It might have been thirty people that you killed!"

Now Roku began to be vexed by Aang's refusal to listen. "And think how many more would have died, if the _Avatar_ had died right there, on the spot!" Then he disappeared, and Aang was alone again.

Suddenly, Aang realized that he had to talk to Roku again. He may have disagreed with what was done, but…was it wrong? Maybe to him, but not to Roku, and he had to understand that. So he sat down again, meditating for a second time. And this time, it only took a few seconds for something to happen. It's just that Aang didn't expect it.

Suddenly, the darkness created by closing his eyes were filled with an image of the courtyard of the Royal Palace. Katara was in the center, and some men were tying her hands together as she struggled and screamed. But there was nobody around to hear her. No houses were within a distance of the Palace that they could easily see what was going on. Anybody who was home might hear a scream somewhere in the distance, but it was too far off for anyone to want to go and check to see what was happening.

Unless Zuko came outside, nobody would help Katara.

Zuko continued his walk toward the Throne Room after he had heard the scream. He stopped for a moment, but assumed it was Katara venting out her anger at him. After all, he did say a lot to get her angry. The both of them did. They never did seem to get along often.

But Zuko couldn't ignore this second scream. "Calm down, now," he thought to himself, but when Katara was crying, "Zuko, help me!" he couldn't just say she was angry anymore. Something went wrong out there, and he had to help.

No, he couldn't. He couldn't go outside, not with the possibility of what could happen to him. But then, if he didn't, what happened to Katara? Could he really stay inside to keep himself safe at the cost of a dear friend? The very thought of it made Zuko's face contort in disgust; how could he even think such a thing? He had to put Katara first over himself, _anyone_ before himself.

Zuko burst outside through the main doors, but he was met with a sight he didn't quite expect. Katara was not there. Instead, there was Aang, who looked wildly concerned, and he was accompanied by Toph, Sokka, and Suki, all sharing the same facial expression as the Avatar. Zuko realized that he had waited too long. Katara was gone, and it was his fault.

Upon seeing Zuko, Aang immediately approached him, trying to figure out what was going on. He knew Katara was at the Palace, so of course Zuko would have a clue as to what happened. "Where is Katara?" he asked. He was hoping more than he had ever hoped before that there was a straight answer.

Zuko looked downward for a second before finally replying. "I heard her screaming after she left, but I didn't get out here quickly enough. Someone must have attacked her."

This was not the answer Aang was hoping for, because now they had a problem on their hands. Katara was missing, and no one had a clue where she was. "How long was she screaming before you got out here?" Aang wanted to know how long it was since she had been taken away, although whoever attacked her couldn't be too far yet.

Zuko didn't quite want to answer this question. The answer was that he didn't bother to help, that he had practically let Katara be attacked as he sat there and waited. "I'd say a good twenty seconds before I got outside."

Aang was expecting an answer between five and ten seconds. Surely Zuko would have run out immediately after thinking Katara could be in danger; why would he have any reason to wait? Something must have gone wrong. "What were you doing when she screamed? That's a little…long to get over here."

_Please, just stop the questioning and find her_, Zuko thought. He couldn't imagine how Aang would react when he heard that Zuko had actually waited to see if Katara was alright. "I wasn't too far from that door, actually…" Then he paused, knowing that he had something coming for him. And he deserved it, too. "To be honest, I waited to come out here."

Aang's expression immediately changed from worried curiosity to downright fury. "How could you just sit there?" he shouted. "Did you even care that she was out here screaming?" He couldn't believe Zuko. He was furious. He was close to breaking out into a rage, and who knew what he'd do then?

Zuko scrambled to explain himself. "You don't understand!" he began, but Aang had heard enough. Not even giving Zuko a chance to speak, he interrupted, "I don't understand? I think I understand perfectly! I know you've been angry with her lately, but look what you've done now!" And without even thinking, Aang whipped out his staff and sent a blast of air, knocking Zuko straight into the outer wall of the Palace. He could kill him right now, he was so angry. He kept sending wave after wave of air, nearly bashing Zuko's head into the stone wall.

Zuko refused to fight back, not wanting to hurt Aang. Still, he needed to protect himself. All he could do was run from the attacks and plead for the boy to stop - not that the latter seemed to be doing any good. But Aang was in a rage, and he wasn't taking time to aim; instead, he was throwing out one attack after another. It didn't seem like Aang was in his normal state, but Zuko knew that he loved Katara. As far as they knew, Zuko had might as well have killed her.

A good ten seconds later, Suki and Sokka came to Zuko's rescue, grabbing both of Aang's arms from behind and making sure he couldn't move. "Stop it, Aang!" Sokka yelled, with Aang struggling to break free of their grasps. "You're not doing any good right now, because we're just letting whoever attacked Katara get further away. So let's look for some clue as to where they went."

They began searching, but they were immediately interrupted by Toph. "I feel some movement that way" - she pointed toward the northern side of the city - "but I could be wrong. If we're right, they're not far off; maybe only a quarter of a mile." Toph knew she couldn't feel people that far away, though: the only way she could have known was if there was a large mass. And it had to be large.

"It's the only clue we have," Sokka replied. "Let's start moving!" Then they set off, with Toph as their guide; unfortunately, in his haste, Aang had forgotten his glider and couldn't get an aerial view of the city. They had to rely on what Toph could sense.

The five reached a narrow alleyway, which Toph seemed to be certain the unknown attackers traveled down. Everyone was indoors, obviously frightened by the commotion outside. There was no authority anymore to take care of it, no soldier to keep the people safe. The Fire Nation Capital was now a very dangerous place to live in, and everyone was sure to keep themselves away from any possible threat.

They began to run down the alleyway, but Toph yelled for them to stop. "I feel something under the stone," she said. "Like someone hid something under there. But I don't know what it is."

Immediately, Sokka took a coin from his pocket. He threw it downward so that it would bounce on the stone road. It hit once, nothing. Then it bounced further. Nothing happened. But the third time, something definitely did happen. There was an explosion, one that flung the coin a good distance away, and one that could have seriously injured any person who made the wrong move.

It didn't take a detective to figure out that the attackers' route had been planned beforehand. Of course, this changed everything: it meant that the attack on Katara was not some random crime. It meant that there was a motive behind it all. It meant that this was a trap.

"They know we're coming," Zuko said. He looked toward Aang, who didn't look fazed in the least bit.

"Then let's not keep them waiting."


	7. Chapter 7: Descent, Part 2

While the five heroes were out to save Katara, the Palace was left nearly deserted, save for Mai, Ursa, and Iroh. The three were in separate rooms currently on opposite corners of the Palace. Ursa was preparing herself some food, at it was lunch time. Iroh was taking a bath, trying to relax - it was what he did best. Mai was in her own room, practicing her fighting.

To tell the truth, Mai missed the old Zuko with whom she had fallen in love with. Normally she masked this and pretended she didn't care what was going on with him, but it was all a lie. Mai didn't want people to think she cared. Caring to her, was weakness, and she did not want people to think she was weak. She couldn't help, though, but care about how Zuko was acting lately. He was no longer himself, and part of that meant that he wasn't paying as much attention to her. Talking to him was a nightmare, like talking to a whiny three-year-old. Mai couldn't even remember the last time he kissed her.

She heard a loud crash, that of glass shattering. Mai was practicing with stilettos onto a board hung on her wall. Apparently while thinking she missed and one hit a mirror. Well, it wasn't like she would be missing anything. She _did_ look the same every day, and Mai wasn't planning on dropping her look anytime soon.

Suddenly, Mai heard another crash. This time, however, it didn't have a thing to do with those stilettos. It came from behind her, at the window. Mai turned around to find that it had been smashed into pieces, and saw a stone on the floor. She immediately walked up to the broken window, making sure to avoid the shards of glass scattered across a small section of the floor. Could it have been some stupid kid trying to see what he could get away with? Or was it someone with a grudge against the Fire Lord? Mai knew there were a lot of the latter, so it wouldn't have been a surprise to her. Either way, whoever it was had no idea what was coming for them.

Mai stuck her head out the window, looking around to see if anybody was there. Whoever it was, they were quick. There wasn't a single figure out in the courtyard. Lucky kid; if he was back next time then she'd be ready to beat the stupid out of him - if that was possible, of course.

Just as Mai was about to give up her search and turn around, somebody grabbed her. No, not somebody. A few people. One for each arm and another for the head. They didn't make a sound, and they didn't let her make a sound. If only she had that mirror now. Mai tried to move her arm and jab whoever was grabbing her with the knife she had in her hand, but these people were stronger than she was. They dragged her away with ease as she tried to kick around, not being able to move any other body part. But then another man grabbed her legs; she saw that his face was hidden under a veil.

"The Avatar's girlfriend was taken away," he said. The man had a very distinctive, deep voice, and Mai knew that if she got out of this situation she'd be able to identify him again in a heartbeat. "Figured that we should get the Fire Lord's."

Meanwhile, Zuko was mulling over the past couple days. He hadn't seen anybody who he didn't absolutely need to see; even then, when it was something important, he was reluctant to let anyone near him. If he hadn't been like this, Katara wouldn't have been kidnapped, and they wouldn't be in this situation. It was all his fault. Well, not really - this was all because of Di Ren, who still hadn't been found. The dirty little scoundrel managed to get away before anyone could search for him. Wherever he was, Zuko hoped that he lived the miserable life he deserved. He had his second chance when he said he regretted what he had done in the war and moved to the Fire Nation Capital. Zuko should have known he was lying.

"Look!" Zuko's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Aang's voice. He was pointing toward an area about a half-mile ahead, downhill from their current position. There were numerous small wooden buildings arranged in a triangle, with a large, empty space in the center where a mass of people was gathered. A large building was at the tip of the triangle, the farthest one from where Aang was now standing; he assumed that the leader of whatever this was lived there. The area itself was surrounded by a thick forest on the furthest two or the three sides; at that point visibility was gone. Everyone knew that this place was where Katara was taken. But they also knew that it was indeed a trap. These people were waiting for them.

Aang immediately began running downhill toward the gathering of people, much to the dismay of Sokka, who wanted to plan something out first. But Aang wasn't intent on taking time to plan; he wanted to get in there, save Katara, and get out. The other four tried to follow him as quickly as possible, but they lagged behind the Airbender, who used his skills to increase his speed dramatically.

Sokka wasn't happy with the situation as it was. Yes, he wanted to rescue his sister. Yes, he wanted to get in there as quickly as possible before something happened to her. But this wasn't how Sokka went about things, going in without any clue as to what you were doing. It wasn't how he worked, and it made him worried to dive in head-first into any situation. This was obviously a trap. What if everyone there was trained to kill them? Of course, he _did_ have the Avatar, the Fire Lord, the most powerful Earthbender, and the best female warrior in the world on his side, but what if something happened to one of them because they didn't prepare at all for this?

Aang, of course, was the first to arrive to the camp. He whizzed by two guards, who had no idea what to do. Even seeing him coming, they had no chance at hitting him. The rest of Team Avatar ran even faster, trying to catch up with Aang as best they could. Toph Earthbended the guards into the ground, making sure they could get in without being attacked first thing.

Upon entering, they were greeted by a monumental stone statue of Ozai. His gaze, even in its stone version, was frightening to look at. Suddenly, they realized what this all was. These people were in support of Ozai, and were planning to take down Zuko. The dismayed boy couldn't take his eyes off the statue, the idea taking hold inside of him that people wanted to kill him. Forget that he was indeed well-loved, and that the majority of people in the world at that moment thought him to be the best ruler the Fire Nation had in centuries. People also wanted to kill him, and they weren't going to give up easily.

"Stop staring; let's go!" Suki gave Zuko a nudge, breaking him out of his pessimistic trance. Upon looking into the camp itself, he saw dozens of people running around, with Aang scattering them. He was destroying all the buildings, making sure to look inside first to see if Katara was there. There were a few people attacking him, but they proved to be no match for the love-driven Avatar.

The other four entered the battle as well, covering different areas than Aang. Surprisingly, they were doing well - apparently some of the camp's members weren't as brave as they thought they were. Still, nobody could find Katara. Zuko was beginning to have doubts that she was actually here.

Aang came up to a building which looked a little larger than the others. He could tell that whoever led this group was here; maybe something here would have a clue as to where Katara was. However, Aang didn't need a clue: she was right there. She was chained up on the wall, obviously to prevent her from Waterbending. There was a little bit of blood dried on her face. _Someone hit her_, Aang realized in dismay.

Her face immediately brightened when she saw the young Avatar walk inside. "Aang!" she cried out in joy, with tears streaming down her face. She had been there for mere minutes before Aang came to her rescue, but in that time they managed to chain her up, and hit her a couple times after she insulted the leader of the camp.

Aang managed to break the chains through a few moments of focusing on Metalbending, which he had been learning from Toph recently. The skill most certainly didn't come as naturally to him as it did her, and truth be told, this chain-breaking was the limit of what he could do. But Katara fell down to the floor, feet-first, and kissed him as soon as she could. After wiping the tears away from her face, Aang said, "Go find everyone else and tell them you're safe. I'll be right there."

She left and Aang followed her out, but stopped at the doorway of the building. It was the last one left now, and then there were just about twenty people left to deal with that were still running frantically around. Aang decided to burn this one, previously residing to Airbending for the others; this, however, was a building he very much wanted to get rid of. He shot a flame forward, holding it out for a few seconds.

Then he fell forward, unconscious, blood dripping from a small wound on the back of his head.

Katara, unaware of what had happened, was hugging her friends, who were overjoyed to see that she was safe. "And Aang said he'd be right here," she said. "I'm sure he'll be over in a few seconds." Seconds, however, turned into a minute, which was worrisome. What was he doing that was taking so long?

Sokka began to walk to the other side of the camp, where he imagined Aang was, and the others followed. Still, he didn't hear or see a thing. They were completely alone, and Aang wasn't there.

After everyone became more worried, Sokka inspected the ground. Was there some kind of clue as to where he was? He had to have gone somewhere. Sokka searched the ground for something, _anything_, until finally he came across a small collection of blood on the ground in front of a burning building. There was a large wooden board next to this spot, also with some blood on it.

"I think I know what happened to Aang," Sokka said. "Someone attacked him. The trap worked."

There was a moment of silence that Zuko eventually broke. "Then we need to find out where he's headed." And with that, Zuko ran off toward the entrance of the camp. He was going to find out where they were taking Aang, and the best way to get the information would be from someone who was part of the plan.

Zuko could still see five people running. Picking the one who seemed to be the slowest, he went as quickly as his feet could carry him to the escapee, easily outrunning him, but still going faster than he needed. When he finally did reach the man, he pushed him to the ground from behind, pinning him down as he tried to catch his breath. The man panicked and tried to squirm his way out from Zuko's grasp, but to no avail.

"I want to know where you're taking the Avatar!" Zuko shouted, and the man began to breathe even more heavily.

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"You're lying to me. Tell me NOW!"

"I don't know what they're doing with him!"

Zuko leaned in closer. "Don't lie to me." He lifted a hand threateningly.

"You can hit me all you want, but I won't be able to tell you anything!"

"I'm not planning on hitting you." Zuko created a small fireball. He was bluffing immensely, but it seemed to be working. The man gulped, weighing the options of dying or betraying what he believed in. The latter definitely seemed to be the better option to him.

"They're taking him to a larger camp, about twenty miles north in the middle of the forest. And if you think there were a lot of people here, try a thousand there! You're not going to be able to just walk in and get him like you did the girl." The man couldn't believe he had just said that. He had singlehandedly destroyed the plan which had been working so perfectly until now.

Zuko extinguished his fire, taking his hand off the man. "Go," he said. "I'd better not see your face again." Now he wasn't bluffing. He didn't need any more information, so he could do with the man what he wanted. But he heeded Zuko's word, scrambling to his feet and taking off as if he were being chased by a bear. He might as well have been, though - he'd probably have a better chance of escaping than if he were being chased by Zuko in a rage.

"We're going to need Appa," Sokka said.

"Why do we need Appa?" Katara asked. "We can beat them to that larger camp. How fast could they be going?"

Sokka shook his head. "They beat us here, remember? They must be using something to go faster than we are. And besides, they probably know their way around that forest better than we do. We'd end up getting lost, but not with Appa."

Suki nodded her head in agreement. "You're right." _He's pretty smart for a dumb guy_, she thought.

They began running back where they came from, out of breath now from all the movement but ignoring that. Just ten more miles and then it'd be Appa's turn to move.

As his friends were setting out to rescue him, Aang was coming back into reality. The bleeding had stopped by now; one of his attackers had taken care of that quickly. And miraculously, he didn't feel like he was badly injured. In fact, he felt fine.

Except for one thing. He was chained down a box, and was looking up at the sky above. He knew he was moving; either that, or all the trees in the world were traveling backwards as he laid there. Whoever was behind this was a genius. He had successfully lured the Avatar into a trap and captured him like he were a rabbit-mouse. Aang couldn't believe that he had let himself be caught this easily. Hadn't he learned, after months of being chased, how to avoid being taken by the Fire Nation?

He was chained down to this box pretty well. The metal chains around his body were so tight that they impeded his breathing slightly; the ones on his arms and legs were making his limbs sore. The only part of his body that wasn't strapped down was his neck, and Aang was grateful for that. Not only did this mean that he was saved from being choked to death, but it also meant that he could have a look around.

He picked his head up, looking straight forward in an effort to see where he was going. There was only one problem: he didn't pick his head up. Aang tried again, panicking, wondering what was going on. His head wasn't moving, and there was nothing holding it down. He tried to remember the last thing that happened to him before he lost consciousness, thinking that it might have something to do with the situation now. He remembered being hit by something, something solid. And then that was it. He was out in one hit.

Could he be paralyzed? Did he have some head injury? It would have been great to know if he could move anything else, but unfortunately every other part of his body was restricted by chains and unable to move. Still, the idea of being paralyzed was a terrifying one. If it was true, it meant that he had failed. Not only had someone captured him, but they managed to keep him alive _and_ useless.

An unfamiliar face leaned over the open wooden box, smirking. "He's awake," the man said. "And judging by the fact that he's not doing anything, we're in good shape." Another face bearing the same twisted smile appeared opposite the first. The second man laughed at the pathetic shape the Avatar was in right now.

"Look at you," he said with a grin stretching from ear to ear. "The protector of the universe, reduced to a motionless body. You're lucky I didn't hit hard enough to kill you, but we don't quite like the idea of another one of you popping up anytime soon." Then he spat on Aang's face, the boy unable to do anything. He couldn't talk back, retaliate, even do so much as wipe the disgusting fluid off of himself. Instead, he could do nothing but lay there as the two men sneered at him and the saliva made its way down his cheek.

The first man made sure to go out of his way and whack the Avatar with the back of his hand. Then the other did the same, and soon they took turns going back and forth, slapping Aang's face around the little space he had in that box. Then one brought his fist down onto Aang's nose, which blood began to flow out of. He knew it was broken, and he would have been screaming in pain, but he couldn't move his mouth. Instead, a few tears mixed in with the blood, and the guards found another reason to laugh. He was humiliated by them, a joke.

"Most powerful bender in the universe, crying like a baby!" one shouted. If Aang could move, he would have shown them what "most powerful bender in the universe" meant. But for whatever reason, he was stuck in this box, subject to whatever method of torture these two men decided to apply to a thirteen-year-old boy.

"You know what? I think I'm feeling a little crazy today!" said the same man who broke his nose. "I'm going to challenge the most powerful bender in the universe to an Agni Kai! What's that? You accept?" He put his hand to his ear, leaning in as if expecting a response from Aang. He grinned, shouting "Fantastic!" Then he flicked a small bit of fire at Aang, which hit his chin. Thankfully, it was covered in wet blood, so he didn't receive a scar, but the boy still felt the heat. He would have twinged if he could. But he couldn't.

* * *

As Katara reached the Palace, she was ready to collapse. It wasn't that she cared about having to run, but this was miles upon miles in not too long a period of time. And not only was the running putting stress on her, but through this entire time she was worried sick about Aang. She knew she was worried more than anyone else; it wasn't that nobody was worried but her, but she _loved_ him. She had no idea what they would do to him, maybe if they had killed him. Would she ever see him again? Katara couldn't bear the thought of the answer to that being no.

It was this that kept her going past what she thought would be possible for her. She didn't care that her legs were unbelievably sore, or that she could barely breathe. She just cared that someone she loved was in danger, and that she needed to do something about it.

Luckily, nothing had happened to Appa while they were gone. It seemed like their attackers had completely forgotten about him. Well, they left one very important member of Team Avatar out of their plan. Katara climbed on him, as relieved as anyone else was. Finally, they had a break from being on their feet. But now they had thirty miles to travel; even if Appa could go fast, whoever had Aang could go fast as well. They were probably already at the larger camp by now.

Sokka was intrigued as to how the Firebenders moved so quickly. There was no way they could have run so fast; he knew that he and his friends were pretty fast runners. There must have been some sort of device involved, one that could carry someone across the forest floor. Perhaps when they reached the camp, he would try and find out how they got around. Although he hated some of the Firebenders, he certainly admired their technological prowess…

Katara was looking frantically around the trees. Nothing but a wall of dark green was visible under her, though, and she was quickly beginning to lose hope. Every time she started to feel like that, however, she immediately thought to herself, "Keep looking. He's out there." She thought it over and over, and it boosted her confidence a little until just moments later, when she would again feel hopeless. Her emotions were fluctuating wildly, from hopeless and dejected to confident and persistent, and back again. It was an exhausting process.

Even with Katara's vigilant watching, however, it was Suki that spotted a sign to the camp's location. Katara wasn't facing the right direction to see it; even so, it would have been difficult to see. A small bit of smoke was rising from the trees - not much, though; if there was fire there, it wasn't much. Whoever was there obviously wasn't trying to be noticed.

"I found something," Suki whispered. She was speaking so quietly because she was afraid that they would be heard, and signaled the others to do so as well. "There's a tiny bit of smoke rising from those trees over there. I think that might be it."

"We should land a little farther off," Zuko replied. "Who knows how big that place is? We can't afford to land right in the middle of it."

The others nodded in agreement. Katara directed Appa so that they could land just about two miles away from where they saw the smoke. There wasn't a single person in sight where they had landed, but Toph wasn't too happy. Being blind while on Appa, she wasn't sure how far they landed, or how high they were flying. If they flew too close to the trees, she was afraid that somebody could have spotted Appa, the enormous bison in the sky. If that happened, it was all over for them.

They stayed where they had landed for a full twenty minutes, totally silent. Everyone was sharing the same fears as Toph, and they weren't going to blow what could be their only opportunity to save Aang. Nobody came, however. Either someone was plotting how to attack them, or they were safe. Sokka assumed the latter after this extended period of silence had gone on long enough. He wanted to plan how to get Aang back safely, and waiting around just in case somebody was going to attack them was not going to help.

He summoned the rest of his friends to gather up and start planning. "We need to get in there," he said. "Blend in. Pretend like we belong, and then at the right moment, find Aang and free him."

"I can't go in there," Zuko said. "They'll recognize me right off." He pointed to his scar, which confirmed his identity as the Zuko the Fire Lord to any person in the Fire Nation.

"I won't be able to go in there, either," Katara said. "They captured me first to get Aang. They know who I am."

"What if they know who all of us are?" Toph wondered.

Everyone fell silent for a few seconds.

"We'll need some sort of disguise," Sokka answered. "At least just change our looks slightly so that even if we look familiar, we don't look exactly like us."

"I can sneak into the place," Suki said. "I'm sure they don't know me as well as you four."

"Wait!" Zuko said. "All of you aren't even wearing Fire Nation clothes. You can't walk in there with some Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe outfit and expect to 'blend in'."

"Well, if anything," Sokka replied, "you can give me your Fire Nation stuff. We're not that different as far as size goes, so they'll fit me." Zuko agreed, and the two exchanged shirts, then pants. Katara looked away when her brother took his off, although she couldn't help but noticing that Suki didn't seem to make any effort not to look.

"I can go in tonight and steal some clothes for you," Sokka said to Suki as he let his hair down from its traditional Water Tribe style. "Hopefully I can get in when there aren't too many people around." Everyone else nodded in agreement, hoping that he knew what he was doing. Not only for him, but for Aang and all of them, he had better have known what he was doing.

* * *

Sokka wished he didn't have to be so quiet as he made his way across two miles of forest. However, he couldn't do anything, make any noise that would allow him to be found as he tried to infiltrate the camp. He didn't even walk as he went across; the fallen branches and leaves would crackle loudly and give him away, and somebody could have easily heard. Instead, he only moved by climbing the branches, trying his best not to rustle leaves that were still on the trees. It was mid-October, and there weren't quite as many as normal, but there was still the possibility of making a substantial noise that could be heard by others.

By the time Sokka reached the camp, it was nearly midnight. The sky was pitch black; clouds covered the sky so that the world was truly dark. The light of the stars and moon did not reach the ground, and the only light came from fires burning at the camp. Sokka let himself fall from a lower branch, arms numb and exhausted from the climbing. He wished he could have some time to rest, but there was none to waste. After just seconds of relief he began running toward the source of the light.

As he came closer to the edges of the camp, Sokka began to realize that it was not guarded. He began to have a suspicion that the guards were hidden somewhere, ready to attack. He slowed down, looking frantically first behind trees, then on the ground, then up in the highest branches, trying to find the hidden men ready to attack him. But none were there, and slowly, skeptically, he continued to move in. Perhaps the disguise was working.

After entering a few empty one-room "houses", Sokka found one with clothes belonging to a woman. He took some that were lying on the bed; they seemed like they would fit Suki perfectly-

"He's moving!" a voice shouted. Sokka's eyes widened. He had been caught; someone had realized that he was not supposed to be there. Well, he wasn't going down with a fight. Whoever had drawn attention to him was about to feel a world of pain as Sokka turned around to face…

Nobody. There wasn't a single person to be seen. Was he going crazy, hearing things? How could he have imagined someone? Or, were they waiting for him to walk out of the room so they could surprise him? Sokka left the room, anticipating an attack, but none came.

"This is so weird," he mumbled to himself.

Suddenly, a collective cheer from what sounded like a large crowd erupted. It came from the source of the bright fire, at the very center of the camp. Sokka ran toward this enormous gathering, shocked that he hadn't noticed it before. He was so paranoid about being captured that he didn't pay attention to anything that far away.

The cheering and hollering and shouting, once it started, continued without falter. The cheers only grew louder when shouts of "Me next!" and "It's my turn!" surfaced among the otherwise unintelligible noise. Sokka was bewildered as to what could have been happening. He reached the border of the crowd, unable to see as people were standing on their toes and climbing on top of each other to get a good view of the event.

Sokka dropped the clothes and started to push through the crowd without making it obvious. He would slip in between what small spaces there were near people, eventually making his way to the front without incident. And what he saw was an image he would never forget.

Aang was there. He thought it would be good to find Aang, but this was a different situation. Aang had bruises all over his body; his nose was obviously broken, and there was dried-up blood from the nose all over his lower face. He was not wearing anything but underwear, and he was chained to a board of wood that stood vertically. He didn't seem to be fully coherent, as if he were drugged or something; people were throwing things at him and all he did was slowly stir, trying to look at the culprit.

The young boy was being treated as if he were inhuman, a monster. People were throwing things at him, mostly sticks that were on the ground, but Sokka saw a stone graze Aang's foot. Some people came up and slapped him, and all were taunting him with "You're the Avatar, you saved the world, why can't you save yourself!", "All hail the almighty Avatar!", and other wicked things. Sokka stared in disbelief, shock, and horror, frozen to the ground and not knowing what to do.

Then a hand tapped him forcibly, giving him a little push. "You!" a man shouted, trying to make his voice heard above the wild yelling of the crowd. "It's your lucky day!" Then the man shoved a bottle in Sokka's hands, pointing at Aang.

Sokka stared at the bottle for a moment, wondering what was inside. "What exactly is this?" he asked the man, hoping that the answer was something harmless.

"It'll keep him paralyzed, kid," he replied. "We don't want him breaking free now that we have him for good." Once again the man pointed to the Avatar, and Sokka walked over to him. He uncapped the bottle, looking into Aang's face. Aang recognized Sokka even through his disguise, and tried his best to give a look that would beg for him not to do this. Sokka knew him well enough to understand it, even though the Avatar had a limited range of motion. He wondered if he could just not give him the drug, break him free and escape with his friends. But there were too many enemies around him; it would never work. And although it killed him to do it, Sokka held Aang's face up and tipped the bottle so that the contents poured into Aang's mouth.

And as Aang quickly lost consciousness, both of them knew that every day it took to save the Avatar was a day that he would suffer more. But for now, it all faded to black.


End file.
